Twitter has been dominating the headlines ever since Elon Musk acquired the company in October last year. Musk has said that the platform has too many ads which he is trying to fix. In the meantime, there is some drama over how many employees Twitter currently has.
In a tweet, Musk admitted that not only are ads quite frequent on Twitter but they are also quite big. He added that he is taking steps to address both of these in the coming weeks.
Notably, Twitter also has a paid subscription called Twitter Blue which replaces the previous blue tick verified accounts.
The company has increased the price for a Twitter Blue subscription on Android to $11 which matches the pricing it was offering on iOS. The monthly subscription is $8 in case one takes a web subscription. Also, the company would offer an $84 annual subscription plan which is available only on the web and not the app.
The pricing strategy is an apparent bid to bypass the app store fees that Apple and Alphabet charge. Last year, Musk feared that Apple was preparing to boot out Twitter from the app store. He has also been critical of the play store charges.
However, after Musk met Apple CEO Tim Cook, Musk said that Apple never considered removing Twitter from the app store. This was yet another U-turn for Musk who has changed his positions on several aspects.
Musk Revised Twitter Blue Pricing
Twitter Blue subscribers would see only about half the ads that other subscribers do. Musk is also working on a higher priced subscription tier which would be totally ad-free. Ever since Musk acquired the microblogging platform he has been trying to diversify the revenue base and lower the reliance on ads, which hitherto accounted for almost all of the company’s revenues.
Musk has been trying to “fix” Twitter but in about three months since he has helmed the company, the troubles have only seemed to compound.
Twitter also faced lawsuits for not paying rent on some of the offices. It has also auctioned several items in what looks like an attempt to raise cash. Reportedly, several Twitter employees carried their own toilet papers to the office after the company fired janitors.
Musk has also flagged Twitter bankruptcy as an option. The company’s financial woes have been intensified by the massive debt that Musk took to acquire it. Twitter reportedly has an annual interest outgo on these loans.
How Many Employees Does Twitter Have?
We now have another controversy over how many employees Twitter currently has. Musk fired nearly half of Twitter staff soon after he took over. He also fired many contractors, allegedly unannounced.
CNBC reported that Twitter now has 1,300 employees and less than 550 of these are engineers. Before Musk took over, Twitter had around 7,500 employees. If CNBC’s report is correct, it would imply that Twitter has laid off around 80% of its staff.
The report also added that nearly 130 employees from other Musk companies like Tesla and SpaceX are also working at Twitter.
Musk has meanwhile refuted the report and said that Twitter has 2,300 “active employees” and only 10 employees from his other companies are helping him to fix Twitter.
The note is incorrect. There are ~2300 active, working employees at Twitter.
There are still hundreds of employees working on trust & safety, along with several thousand contractors.
Less than 10 people from my other companies are working at Twitter.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 21, 2023
Tesla Stock Crashed after Musk Acquired Twitter
Many observers have expressed concerns over Tesla employees helping Musk at Twitter as TSLA is a listed company. Tesla stock has meanwhile crashed ever since Musk acquired Twitter.
The Twitter chaos is not solely to blame for the crash though and markets have been spooked by the demand slowdown.
While Tesla stock crashed, many bulls like Cathie Wood and Adam Jonas of Morgan Stanley maintained their bullish bets, Wood added more Tesla shares in ARK ETFs to capitalize on the crash. There is a guide on buying Tesla stock.
As for Twitter, the drama has ceased to end. Recently, the social media platform also blocked third-party apps. It is anyways battling an exodus of advertisers, many of whom were spooked by Musk’s antics.
Dogecoin has meanwhile been a beneficiary of Musk’s Twitter acquisition and traders have shown renewed interest in the meme cryptocurrency. There is a list of meme cryptocurrencies and a guide to buying Dogecoin.
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